Glasgow Airport Introduces Newest Employee: Robot Ambassador

Glasgow Airport recently announced it has a new employee working for them, and she is simply known as GLAdys. As the first airport robot ambassador in Britain, her main duties this month includes entertaining flyers within the main departures section of the airport.

How did GLAdys get her name? Crazy as it may seem, the four-foot-tall robot’s title stems from the airport’s International Air Transport Association code, GLA.

Currently donning a Santa costume, the ‘state-of-the-art’ robot can dance and sing, and is programmed currently to belt out three classic holiday tunes: Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and of course, Santa Clause is Coming to Town.

Telegraph reported that GLAdys is also ringing in the holidays by re-telling three Christmas stories to visitors: the classic, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, as well as Santa’s Workshop, and Santa Clause Comes. The sweet and festive robot is also taking selfies with travelers using a camera mounted on her hand. Flyers can gain access to the photos via email or by allowing it to be shared through the differing social media channels that Glasgow Airport is connected to.

GLAdys came to be as one component of the Digital Passenger Experience; a project launched by the airport to provide insight on how technology can be used to enhance communication and client engagement.

While GLAdys is the first of her kind to be launched within a Britain airport, Glasgow isn’t the first to have such an innovative employee working for them. In fact, in 2015, the Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport introduced Spencer: a robot to help flyers find their way around international terminals. To boot, the Amsterdam airport, which also happens to be one of the world’s most advanced airports when it comes to technology, also has created a robot arm to transfer baggage within its central storage area. It automatically places luggage into a large container to be placed on an airplane. While these were launched in 2009, more recently in 2014 the airport began using a Mechanical Unloading Module (MUM) system which allows luggage to be automatically unloaded from containers.